ZUG is the abbreviation for "Shaping the university together". We ZUGis believe that the university will only become an (even) better place to work at if we continue to shape it together. We take Section 2 of the Lower Saxony Staff Representation Act (NPersVG) very seriously. It states: "(1) The department and staff representatives shall work together [...] in a spirit of trust and partnership", both "to safeguard the interests of the employees in the department" and "to fulfil the tasks incumbent on the department". "ZUG" is therefore not only quite purposeful, but actually a legal obligation! What's more, ZUG is great for puns. So: Full speed ahead!

ZUG is a group of employees who are committed to representing the interests of all who are working at the university. Our members come from various departments of the university and therefore have a wide range of experience and expertise. We see this as a great advantage when it comes to understanding your needs and concerns and representing them to the employing party.

In the last staff council election, 371 employees and 18 civil servants voted for us, which shows our strong mandate and the trust of the voters in our work. We at ZUG are independent of and work without the support of external trade unions. This allows us to focus entirely on the specific needs and challenges of the employees of our uiversity. Our goal is to actively shape the future of the University of Oldenburg through partnership and innovative solutions.

ZUG is committed to creating a modern and future-orientated working environment at the University of Oldenburg. Our aim is to organise the university in such a way that it meets the needs of nowadays working world. We support digitalisation to improve work processes without neglecting data protection and employees' rights. Open communication and collaboration are important to us in order to make decisions transparent and in complience with your interests. Flexible models of work and professional development are essential for us in order to enable attractive career paths at the university.

We are also committed to other important issues such as family friendliness, equal treatment and the promotion of an international and diverse university. ZUG wants to help ensure that the University of Oldenburg is an attractive working place for all employees.

• Digital transformation: Our main focus is on the contemporary design of the workplace, particularly with regard to digitalisation.
• Modern IT infrastructure: We are strongly committed to a modern IT infrastructure that enables effective communication and information sharing both internally as well as externally (in national and international co-operations).
• Digital tools and data protection: We strive to maximise the benefits of modern digital tools while ensuring the protection of our data. This includes the establishment of a central management platform for knowledge that enables us to collect, organise and share relevant knowledge and resources at the university. This platform could include teaching materials, administrative documents and other important information to improve collaboration and information sharing. We also believe that a standardised and comprehensive communication platform is necessary and aim to develop a framework service agreement for the introduction of software solutions and digital processes. We also advocate for better equipment as well as the improvement for the access to media and other resources for the teaching staff.

• Flexible working models: We want to support models of work that ensure a flexible working day in order to position the university as an appealing employer on the labour market. This applies to all employee groups! Simplified and modern processes for applications (recruitment, leave, business trips, etc.) are crucial in order to enable these models without media discontinuity. We believe that a communication platform that allows colleagues to exchange information through short official channels is just as important.
• Utilisation of legal regulations: We are committed to the comprehensive utilisation of statutory and collectively agreed upon regulations in the interests of employees. Our goal is to utilise the existing opportunities for the improvement of higher classifications, groupings, remuneration, employment after retirement and other provisions of employment contracts. We are convinced that these measures can contribute to the attractiveness of the university as an employer on the labour market and reduce staff turnover.
• Promote career opportunities: We would like to promote further professional education so that employees can take advantage of targeted training programmes to improve their career opportunities and employment or to advance their careers. These should be embedded within the framework of central HR development.
• Health at the working place: We support initiatives promoting mental and physical health in the working place by supplementing existing programmes such as the Company Integration Management (BEM). We propose expanding the BEM to include a voluntary buddy programme in which experienced colleagues act as buddies to support returnees in their re-integration and act as contact persons. We believe that it is essential to establish an open and supportive communication atmosphere, in which employees can address their concerns without fear of negative consequences. We also want to ensure that constant availability for staff members beyond the regular working time does not become the norm so that employees have the opportunity to relax in the interests of work-life balance. This requires not only clear regulation at the organisational level, but also a reduction in the number of tasks (when constant availability is an expression of overload).
• Childcare facilities: We would like to develop and implement measures to expand childcare services as well as the structural requirements thereof (especially short-term care), also with regard to the cooperation agreement with the city of Oldenburg.
• Promoting equal treatment & inclusion: We support initiatives and programmes that promote an inclusive and respectful working culture. We are committed to ensuring that diversity is perceived as a gain and that all employees feel valued and respected. This includes measures for the recruitment and employment of a diverse workforce thus creating an inclusive organisational culture. We aim to ensure that the effectiveness of these measures is regularly evaluated to ensure the achivement of the desired results so that a working environment is created in which everyone can unfold their full potential. We are committed to comprehensive equal treatment for all employees. A first step could be, for example, that not only married but also unmarried partners receive a paid day off on the day of the birth of their child.

• Dialogue and cooperation: We rely on dialogue based on trust for sharing individual and common interests with all employees. Decisions should be made quickly and transparently. We want to actively converse with you, with the departments, the faculties and with other decision-making levels. Our aim is to promote an open and trustful discourse to ensure that your interests are taken seriously and to enable cooperation with the Presidential Board, the departments and organisational units and, above all, with you. We ensure to make this process transparent from the outset.
• Trust in your expertise: We trust in the expertise of our employees and are committed to including those when making changes to topics and areas of work.
• Structured onboarding and offboarding: We are convinced that new employees should be optimally integrated into their new working environment through structured processes, clear guidelines, regular (networking) events or a mentoring programme. We also want to support departing employees through active offboarding processes to ensure a respectful farewell, early replacement planning and insightful communication. We want to promote guidelines that standardise offboarding interviews and feedback processes in order to retain valuable knowledge and enable continuous improvement at the university.
• Transparency about support services: There are many support programmes for employees at the university on topics such as care of relatives, sabbaticals and psychological help, as well as many others. We want to promote transparency of these programmes for employees so that everybody has an easy access to this kind of information and support they need.

• Active participation of employees: It is important to us that all employees have the opportunity to actively participate in what is happening at the university and make their concerns a topic. We are committed to strengthening employee participation and promoting open discourse. By promoting the establishment of suitable platforms and channels, we want to ensure that ideas, concerns and feedback from all employee groups are taken seriously. This does not only contribute to a transparent and inclusive working environment, but also enables finding solutions together and the future development of the university in general.
• Fair and transparent selection procedures: We are committed to ensuring that selection and employment procedures for employees are fair, transparent and fast. This is crucial in order to attract the best candidates and avoid the increase of workload of our colleagues arising due to vacancy of positions. We want to strengthen the trust in the selection process for employees and promote a positive working culture by adopting a transparent approach.
• Driving positive change: Our aim is to facilitate the necessary changes at the university for the sake of the interests of its employees and to remove obstacles through solution-oriented, constructive collaboration. We want to continuously improve working conditions and promote innovative solutions.
• Promote internationalisation: We are committed to the internationalisation of the University of Oldenburg by making the administration and the working place more attractive for employees, teaching staff and researchers from all over the world. We would like to promote measures such as providing multilingual information and application forms as well as intercultural training for all employees. We are committed to ensuring that managers recognise the importance of language skills and intercultural competence,  encouraging participation in related courses. In addition, we believe in a stronger national and international co-operation in administration (e.g. exchange programmes) and specialised training opportunities for international employees. Thus, we aim to contribute to a more diverse and globally oriented university environment.